PODCAST: Drew Segadelli on the bad blood between the DA and judge in ‘Hernandez’

Assistant District Attorney William McCauley opened yesterday’s pre-trial hearing in the Aaron Hernandez case by doing something most lawyers are loathe to do: He requested that the judge assigned to the former football star’s murder indictment recuse herself.

What made the request so unusual was that the veteran prosecutor told Superior Court Judge E. Susan Garsh he didn’t believe she could fairly handle the matter given the animosity that apparently exists between them. While McCauley didn’t get into the details at the hearing, his problems with Garsh go back to at least the 2010 murder trial Commonwealth v. Duarte when he accused Garsh of lacking the appropriate criminal experience to properly handle the case.

Lawyers Weekly caught up with J. Drew Segadelli of Falmouth, who represented the defendant in the Duarte trial.

He called McCauley a passionate and competitive prosecutor but said his complaints about the judge are unfounded.

“[McCauley] says [Garsh] was antagonistic, that she brought the conversation and arguments to a louder tone, that she was disrespectful,” Segadelli says. “Well, I was there. I tried the case. I found him at all times to be the discourteous one.”